Amai Tea & Bake House
171 3th Avenue
New York, NY 10003
+1 212.863.9630

Good Eats, the wonderfully entertaining show of Alton Brown, has won a Peabody Award! The Peabody is given out by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Georgia, and it recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious service by radio stations, television networks, and the like. According to the Peabody website, Good Eats is being honoured because “rarely has science been taught on TV in such an entertaining—and appetizing—manner as it is in Alton Brown’s goofy, tirelessly inventive series.”

As you may know, Erin & I love Alton Brown, my personal affection for him only heightening when I attended his cooking class about ice cream. Alton is just as silly, smart and awesome in person as he is on the show, and he certainly deserves this award.

Congratulations, AB!

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While on holiday in New York City in December, I met up with the delightful Kelli Bernard, owner and chief baker of Amai Tea & Bake House. We convened at Wild Lily Tea Room for tea, cookies and a chat all captured in our 11th episode.

A few months after Jimmy moved, I became inspired and finally filmed an episode in December. However, soon afterwards my main hard-drive nearly died. Combine that with being crazy busy at work, and you get a slow reemergence into the land of the technically living.

Since Jimmy’s camera also moved to Sweden, the upcoming episode was filmed using my camera, so—sorry—but there will be no HD version available this time. Also, we’re still trying to work out the details of our cross-continent video editing. When he would edit, Jimmy would use Final Cut Pro with the intro & credits created in Motion. Not wanting to send several GB of raw video across the Atlantic, it was up to me to edit this episode. However, I only have iMovie into which I imported the video and inserted Quicktime files of the intro & credits Jimmy had sent me, followed by some back & forth between us nitpicking over details before exporting. Doing something relatively simple is made much more complex when you’re 6 hours and 4,500 miles apart.

I am only boring you with all these particulars so that you can understand we are still working out the kinks of a dual-continent vidcast team. Feel free to with any suggestions you have; we are always open to feedback.

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.
~Alice May Brock

In recent months the potlucks have had themes. October’s potluck had an autumn motif, which lead to far too many apple-based desserts and not enough main dishes. Now I attempt to make everyone tell me in advance what they’re bringing in order to avoid what I refer to as “the dessert fiasco.” The combined November/December potluck was centred around the holidays and winter fare. For something a little different, January’s theme was my co-worker Brad & myself since we both have January birthdays. Invitees were encouraged to come up with dishes based on our preferences. For Brad: crescent rolls, casseroles, cream soda. For me: vegetarian dishes and the colour pink [not necessarily in food, but I was just curious as to what people would come up with]. And with the last potluck in February we celebrated Chinese New Year.

Everyone always seems to enjoy the food and the company, and it’s always interesting to see & taste what people bring. Sometimes you really are reminded that it’s a potluck.

So as the Resident Potluck Director at work, here are some helpful tips to make your potluck a successful one:

1. Emphasize that the food doesn’t have to be homemade. This way non-cooks can join in without feeling intimidated.
2. Don’t forget about the side items, like drinks, chips or bread. Invitees who are pressed for time or don’t like to cook will gladly bring in any of these.
3. Themes can help invitees come up with ideas but don’t force everyone to stay in theme. A potluck is about coming together, eating and having fun. If you want to be a menu control freak, then make everything yourself.
4. Encourage attendees to let you know what they’re bringing. Then if it’s the day before and someone is stressing over what to bring, you can easily tell them what gaps need to be filled.
5. Don’t fret about your dish having to fill up every person. For our first potluck, I made a massive amount of pasta salad, at least half of which I took home. At communal meals like this, people usually take smaller portions since there is so much from which to choose.
6. Think about the appropriateness of your dish. Assuming you make your dish the night before, will it taste as good the next day? Will it reheat well? Does it need to be eaten as soon as it’s made? Can it be made quickly on-site?
7. Think about the electrical, appliance or space limitations of wherever you’re holding the potluck. How will people reheat their dishes? Is there an oven? A microwave? Is there a fridge in which attendees can store their dishes? All this will affect what people bring and what size container in which they bring it.
8. Don’t invite super picky, whiny eaters. You can’t please everybody, so only invite people whose tastebuds are a little adventuresome. After my initial potluck, I have never invited one of my closest friends at work because she is the pickiest eater I know and has no problem expressing her disgust in whatever people are eating. So to keep her from insulting someone’s home-cooked dish, she has been stricken from the invite list.
9. Don’t feel forced to try everything. At our first couple potlucks, I tasted all the vegetarian-friendly dishes, even the ones I didn’t really want to. Afterwards I was full and not in a happy satisfied way. Now I only eat what tempts me.
10. Relax and remember that potlucks are really about the company. Even if you love to cook, it’s okay to bring in something store-bought. We all are pressed for time on occasion.

Since I always make something even when I’m crazy busy, I’m still working on remembering that last tip myself :)

Even with all my tips, you will still be searching for potluck-appropriate recipes. So to help you out the next time you host or attend a potluck, here’s the recipe for a dish that I made for the November/December gathering that was a huge hit.

Mini Goat Cheese & Date Tortas
makes 12 servings | prep time: 15 min.

1/2 c. pitted dates, chopped
2 [3 oz.] packages goat cheese

1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. paprika
1 garlic clove, minced
1 c. baby spinach

24 [1/4-inch thick] slices French baguette, toasted
3 Tbsp. red bell pepper, diced

1. Combine dates and goat cheese in food processor. Set aside.

2. Combine vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, salt, sugar, paprika and garlic. Stir with a whisk. Add baby spinach to vinaigrette, tossing gently to coat.

3. Divide spinach mixture evenly over bread slices. Top each slice with 1 tablespoon date mixture plus red pepper pieces. Serve immediately.

Since the tortas are supposed to eaten immediately after they are made, the night before the potluck I combined the dates & goat cheese, made the vinaigrette, toasted the baguette slices, and diced the red pepper. Then I stored everything in individual containers. The next day I brought all the semi-finished ingredients to work, and I assembled the tortas right before the meal. This ensured that the crostini didn’t become soggy due to the vinaigrette, but I also didn’t have to do all the work directly before the potluck.

The tortas disappeared, and I can’t say that I didn’t have at least 3 of them myself. The combination of flavours and textures works incredibly well. There’s the sweetness of the dates with the slight tang of the goat cheese, merged with a wee spiciness & saltiness of the vinaigrette, cooling smoothness of the spinach, sweetness of the red pepper, and the crunch of the toasted baguette. All together it makes for a fabulous potluck contribution.

You just finished baking a tasty batch of cupcakes, and you took the time to apply the frosting professionally and artfully. Then you realize that the whole purpose behind baking the cupcakes was so that you could take them into work for a friend’s birthday. But how can you ensure that the cupcakes will make it to the office in the lovely state they are in currently? You cannot simply stack them in Tupperware like cookies because that will crush your perfect frosting. And even if you had a container that was wide and long enough, how can you be positive the cupcakes won’t topple over during transit?

This is where the Cupcake Carrier from Crate & Barrel would come in handy. It comes with 12-cup steel pan for baking and also a 12-cup plastic holder that has legs to stand above the steel pan, plus a tall, locking cover with a handle.

I don’t know if there is anything else like this carrier on the market, but when I saw it in the Crate & Barrel catalogue I thought, “Finally! A solution to the cupcake transportation issue!”

24-Cup Cupcake Carrier: $19.95

As to why vegetarians may be more intelligent, I agree with researcher Dr. Catharine Gale who said “…there could be several explanations for the findings, including intelligent people being more likely to consider both animal welfare issues and the possible health benefits of a vegetarian diet.”

Several of my good friends are also vegetarians, but we were all bright, honours-course-taking individuals before we ever became vegetarians. I personally became a vegetarian for health, moral, and ecological reasons, and I believe many people become vegetarians because they choose to stop and really think before putting something in their mouths.

Upon further review I think my green gourd actually looks really nervous.

Unfortunately, I photographed the chayote then put him in the fridge and completely forgot about him until he became speckled with brown spots. Since he was never eaten, I don’t know what he was so worried about in the first place.

ground spices: 2–3 years
whole spices: 3–4 years
seasoning blends: 1–2 years
herbs: 1–3 years
extracts: 4 years

Pure vanilla extract actually lasts practically forever. I used to bake cookies and banana bread a lot during senior year at CMU, and Liz once said I was the only person she knew who went through multiple bottles of vanilla during a single year at university.

For more tips on how to best handle and store spices, visit McCormick’s site. Here you will also find a Date Code Decoder into which you can input the date code from any McCormick spice to find out how old it is.